Midnight Valentine(58)

A shaky exhalation passes my lips, but otherwise, I’m incapable of speech.

Every slumbering cell in my body has woken up and started screaming.

He drags in a breath, nostrils flaring. I can’t tell if he’s furious, shocked, or aroused, because no man has ever looked at me with this particular expression.

Then he carefully sets me away from him and steps back.

He’s wearing his usual faded jeans, boots, and leather jacket. His black hair is its normal windblown mess. He’s got a three-day growth of beard on his jaw, a glower darker than midnight on his face, and the wild intensity of a thousand suns blazing in his eyes.

He’s so beautiful, I have to put my hand against the wall for balance.

He rakes his gaze over me, head to foot. It might as well be his hands for the effect it has. I start to shake. My mouth goes dry. My skin comes alive with electricity. I wouldn’t be surprised if my hair stood on end in a corona around my head.

I finally gather enough of my wits to speak. “What’re you doing here?”

Without looking away from me, he jerks his head toward the bar.

He can’t have known I was coming here with Craig. I didn’t even know where Craig was taking me. So unless he followed us here, running into him like this is another damn coincidence.

Theo jerks his chin at me, like What about you?

“I’m having dinner with Craig Kennedy.”

The curl of his upper lip is subtle but unmistakable. It has the unexpected effect of pissing me off.

I shove away from the wall and grab my purse from the floor. When I straighten, I blast Theo with a glare. “Oh, the guy who faked being sick to avoid me doesn’t like that I’m on a date? That’s classic. You were right, Theo. You are fucked up.”

I try to brush past him and go back to the table, but before I can take three steps, he grabs me by the arms and spins me around. He pushes me against the wall in the small corridor where the restrooms are set apart from the restaurant, so we’re blocked from view by a duo of large potted palms.

The length of his torso presses against mine, crotch to chest. He holds me there against the wall and stares down at me. When he drops his gaze to my mouth, a tremor runs through his chest. He exhales a low noise, like a groan, only softer.

My heart thuds so fast, I feel faint. If a person could spontaneously combust, I would.

I whisper his name. He winces, as if hearing the word leave my lips is painful. With an expression like he would stop himself if only he could, he drops his head to my neck and inhales deeply against my throat.

On instinct—like a cat when it’s stroked down its back—I arch into him, purring.

He exhales in a soft gust. His warm breath fans down my neck. A delicate shudder runs through his entire body. The faintest brush of his lips against my skin leaves me gasping.

I.

Am.

On.

Fire.

He raises his head and stares down into my eyes. I see yearning and anguish and that bottomless darkness in his eyes, and something in my chest feels like it’s melting.

“Why do I hurt you?” I whisper urgently, searching his eyes. “Why do I feel like I know you? Why are you everywhere, even though all you want to do is avoid me?”

He puts his fingers over my lips to silence me. It’s a reflex, because he blinks when he realizes he’s done it, his brows drawing together in surprise. Then it’s as if he can’t look away from his fingers touching my mouth. He stares, fascinated, as he slowly traces the bow of my upper lip with his trembling forefinger.

I couldn’t move even if I wanted to. I close my eyes and stand there, feeling every beat of my heart on a cellular level, unsure if I’m going to faint or laugh or cry.

I want him to kiss me so much, it’s a firestorm in my blood.

My voice comes out low and raw. “If you won’t answer me, I need you to stay away from me. Do you understand? I can’t…this is…it’s too much.”

I open my eyes and gaze up at him. He’s frozen, staring back at me with tortured eyes.

“I’m strong because I’ve had to be, but you make me feel like I might be losing my mind. You make me…feel. Things. All these goddamn things that I don’t know what to do with, okay? I can’t deal with this, Theo, all this…”

Getting choked up, I struggle for a word. “Emotion. Being around you is like being lit on fire and thrown out of a plane and surviving the hard fall to earth, only to realize I’ve landed in a village of cannibals. And it’s dinnertime!”

I break away from him and stumble around the potted palms, angrily swatting their spidery fronds from my face. I hurry back to the table, arriving just as the waiter does. Craig takes one look at my expression and knows something’s wrong.